"Domestic e-Coupon Market Worth 6 Trillion Won"… Wincube Marketing Challenges the Global Market

Launched 'MarinaGift' Last February
US→KR Mobile Coupon Gifting Feature
Holds Over 5,000 Various Korean Products

"It took us a whole year just to introduce our company and negotiate with overseas partners. We will secure sustainability by entering the U.S. market, where mobile coupons have not yet become widespread."

In Korea, the culture of easily giving and receiving gifts via smartphones through e-coupons is well developed. According to Statistics Korea, the transaction amount for e-coupon services nearly reached 6 trillion won last year. But what about sending gifts remotely to acquaintances in Korea from abroad? For example, with 'KakaoTalk Gift,' it is impossible without payment methods such as credit cards issued in Korea. Every holiday, overseas Korean communities had to visit stores in person to buy products and pay expensive shipping fees to send parcels overseas.

The mobile commerce company 'Wincube Marketing' has solved this inconvenience. They launched the platform 'MarinaGift' last February, which allows users to easily send and receive gifts via smartphones across borders. They established a corporation in the U.S. and targeted the global mobile coupon market. Currently, they provide a service to send e-coupons from the U.S. to Korea.

Kim Seongpil, CEO of Wincube Marketing (pictured), said, "After raising awareness in the U.S., we plan to gradually expand our business to other countries," adding, "In the future, we will also offer services to send gifts from Korea overseas." MarinaGift works by instantly sending mobile coupons to the phone numbers of acquaintances in Korea once the overseas customer completes payment. They hold about 5,000 types of Korean products, including department store mobile gift certificates, convenience stores, and bakeries.

CEO Kim began his career in the 1990s as an expatriate at a trading company, exporting Korean shoes and fabrics to Poland. During this time, he decided to pursue a business without inventory worries. After several startups and retries, including licensing overseas PC games domestically, he found the answer in mobile commerce.

In 2011, during the early days of Wincube Marketing, he was the first to propose the gift-giving business model to Kakao and developed the platform. Currently, they provide B2C (business-to-consumer) gift shops on various platforms such as Naver Band and Danggeun Market, and supply mobile coupons to companies like Woowa Brothers and Coupang.

Wincube Marketing's largest revenue source is currently 'SendBee,' a domestic B2B platform that provides bulk mobile coupon issuance services. It is used by corporate managers to send mobile coupons in bulk for employee gifts, event prizes, and various purposes. Over 3,000 products from about 100 brands are available, with a wide range of price options. SendBee's transaction amount more than doubled from 9 billion won in 2020 to 21 billion won last year.

Leveraging the know-how from operating SendBee, they also launched 'DoubleAGift' earlier this year, a platform where U.S. locals can gift gift cards. They have secured about 400 gift card brands usable in the U.S., including Amazon and Apple. CEO Kim stated, "Among domestic mobile coupon companies, DoubleAGift is the first to offer services targeting local products for local customers in the U.S.," expressing confidence that they will grow it into a competitive platform in the North American market.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.